Apple shuts down Chomp app search engine following iOS 6 integration

Apple on Monday officially killed Chomp's service, including its iOS app and website, after having purchased the company to obtain and imtegrate a number of app search and discovery assets into the iOS 6 App Store.

Following the September rollout of iOS 6, which includes the built-in Chomp-based App Store, Apple decided to kill off the app search engine altogether, evidenced by messages received by users saying saying the service has been discontinued as of Sept. 30.

Apple purchased Chomp in February for a reported $50 million to enhance its App Store, subsequently ending the service for Android users in April. Previous to the Android shutdown, Chomp powered Verizon's Android app search engine.

The Chomp-style App Store was first seen in August when Apple rolled out a pre-release version of iOS 6 to developers.

While the new App Store offers backend improvements, especially in app discovery, many users have complained the layout isn't as intuitive as the legacy model. Currently, the App Store features "cards" or "panes" which allows only one app to be displayed onscreen when using an iPhone, whereas the original design featured a scrollable app list. The new layout is well suited for the iPad, however, due to the extra screen real estate.

The end of Chomp comes on the same day as Ping's demise and a scheduled drop in free iCloud storage space temporarily granted to previous MobileMe users.

Apple purchased Chomp in February for a reported $50 million to enhance its App Store, subsequently ending the service for Android users in April. Previous to the Android shutdown, Chomp powered Verizon's Android app search engine.

For pocket change Apple bought a company that very well would have sued them for the changes Apple wanted to implement in iOS6 app store. AND, as a bonus, got to nudge Android users and Eric Schmidt in the nuts for FREE.

"That (the) world is moving so quickly that iOS is already amongst the older mobile operating systems in active development today." — The Verge

What do you mean by vice versa? Apple bought the company and integrated their features into their own appstore, did anyone actually expect them to leave the chomp app there? It's common sense to remove it. Google/Microsoft/Facebook gobble up companies like this everyday. There's nothing anti-competitive about it. The company agreed to be bought, and now Apple can do with the app as they please.

50 million? Hell yeah!
The company took the money and ran. I would have done then same damn thing. And they say the economy ain't good. BS!!!
Obama 2012. Sh**!
Everybody is getting paid big baller cashizzzle .

The new tile based results are less problematic on the larger iPad screen. On my iPhone it is inexcusable and unacceptable to me that I now get a goofy graphic and only one app per screen from App store search results. How do others feel about this? I think this is a major UI gaffe.